A 3 a.m. Showdown Saved Merz’s Game-Changing Plan for Germany
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In the early hours of Friday, Germany’s Greens were given a choice: Would they veto a game-changing spending plan over grievances with chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz, or back the radical shift they themselves had been demanding for months?
They were seven hours into talks at that point, following days of intense negotiations, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a senior party figure, was in regular touch on the phone from Canada. With concessions from Merz’s conservative bloc such as extra climate protection funding, the Greens were in.